October 14, 2006

But who controlled what went into the report? None other than Rice's close neocon pal Philip Zelikow, executive director of the commission. He steered the investigation, picked witnesses, formulated lines of questioning, subpoenaed documents – and even drafted the final report.

As I detailed in my March 31, 2004, column, Zelikow had a glaring conflict of interest. "There's a raft of evidence to suggest that Zelikow has personal, professional and political reasons not to see the commission hold Rice and other Bush officials accountable for pre-9/11 failings," I warned as the commission was wrapping up its hearings.

Zelikow and Rice worked together in the first Bush White House as NSC aides from 1989 to 1991. Not long after their White House stint, they wrote a book on Germany together. Then, following the 2000 election, the pair were reunited in the White House when George W. Bush named Zelikow to his NSC transition team.

Perhaps his friend Rice kept him in the dark about the emergency July 10 meeting. Perhaps it was not an intentional omission on his part.

That's not what Woodward found. In fact, "Zelikow … knew something about the July 10 meeting," he writes.

What's more, Rice's insider pal also buried no less than five pre-9/11 memos from her NSC aides seeking retaliation against bin Laden for the USS Cole bombing. Her aides said they had the evidence to go after bin Laden months before the 9/11 attacks. But Rice did nothing.